Children's Ideas About Glaciers

Below are common ideas children in grades K-6 have about this topic,
compiled from research on children's ideas about science (see
the Session 1 Children's Ideas Bibliography).
Consider what evidence might refute this idea, and why a child
would be likely to believe this?

1. Landforms of similar appearance have a common origin.

The forces and processes that shape the Earth's surface
occur over immense periods of time, and are quite complex.
Without knowledge of these aspects of landforms, it is
difficult to appreciate the many and varied ways that
landforms are created and sculpted. Children are quite
literal in their interpretation of the world, and it
is easy for them to assume that things that look the
same, such as two valleys, are created in the same way,
when in fact one may have been formed by a stream and
the other by a glacier. Hide
Response

2. Glaciers don't move.

Glaciers are enormous rivers of ice that move very slowly
(meters or tens of meters per year). Typically, though
there are some exceptions, glacial movement is too slow
to be easily observable. Also, glaciers are not readily
available for observation in most parts of the world,
so are outside of ordinary experience for many children.
As is true with tectonic plates, the sheer immensity
of the size of glaciers seems to suggest that they do
not move, and many children believe this. Hide
Response

3. Children's ideas about glaciers do not indicate an understanding
of the erosion that glaciers cause.

Glaciers gouge and scrape the landscapes over which
they flow. Watching the water or the wind transport grains
of sand and soil and weathering rock is common to everyday
experience. This typifies the way children and adults
think of erosion. As a result, a huge, seemingly stationary
mass of ice does not inspire thoughts of erosion. Hide
Response

4. Groundwater typically
occurs in the form of basins, lakes, and fast flowing streams
underground.

Groundwater is stored relatively close to the surface
in underground aquifers. Common aquifers include porous
rock and sand. Groundwater percolates through the spaces
in aquifers, and does not exist as a body of water in
the same way as water does on the surface. Popular media
is replete with images of underwater lakes, rivers, and
flowing streams that exist in caverns deep within the
interior of the Earth. Hide
Response